NEWS

The 3rd International Film Festival & Awards．Macao (IFFAM) has invited the most celebrated and influential Chinese actress Yao Chen as this year’s Actress in Focus. The three films starring Yao Chen within the IFFAM programme include Lost, Found, Caught in the Web, and Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back. Yao also attended the event “In Conversation with Yao Chen” at Auditorium at Macao Museum of Arts today.

Overwhelmed by the audience, the event was fully seated. Participants interacted with Yao enthusiastically and learned more about the film industry. During the conversation, Yao shared her career journey and views of different movie themes.

The event was hosted by Hong Kong veteran film producer Nansun Shi. Yao revealed that she never thought of being an actress when she was young, until she watched the film Swordsman II, the image of the female protagonist lingered in her mind. It was a coincidence for Yao to enroll at Beijing Dance Academy because of her height. Later, her dance teacher saw her acting potential, hence suggested her to study at Performance Institute of Beijing Film Academy.

Yao especially mentioned her first performance teacher Niu Na. She was grateful to her teacher’s dedication to correct her Mandarin pronunciation, which is important to acting. Because of her teacher’s strict teaching, Yao could speak fluent Mandarin finally.

Yao said she was lucky to have a successful acting career. She met director Shang Jing during her second year in university. At that time, Shang found her to act in a TV drama but Yao didn’t want to take the inconspicuous supporting role without exploiting her acting talent. Hence she joked about raising the quotation to $1800 in order to reject the offer. Surprisingly, Shang agreed to her request so she began to cooperate with the director.

As for the role of a producer, Yao said she used to have some misunderstandings. Originally she thought being a producer was an easy job, now she realized that he or she had a very heavy workload and a good producer could make the shooting process smooth and comfortable. She established a production company because she wanted to make the films that she was interested in, as there were not many suitable characters for women in the Chinese market, and also she had higher requirements for the characters as she grew up.

Yao first studied dance at the Beijing Dancing Academy and then entered Performance Institute of Beijing Film Academy. With her starring role as Guo Furong, the daughter of a legendary martial artist, in TV series My Own Swordsman (2006), she displayed both expert comic and dramatic skills and achieved immediate fame. She has starred in many films including If You Are The One 2 (2010), Caught in the Web (2012), Firestorm (2013), Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe (2015) , Miss Partners (2016), Journey To The West: The Demons Strike Back (2017) and Lost, Found (2018).

For years, Yao has joined in charity work at home and abroad in earnest. In China, she has supported a number of social initiatives, and she was appointed “UNHCR National Goodwill Ambassador for China” by The UNHCR in the field of International Humanitarian Affairs. Owing to her achievements and influences in career and humanism, she was named one of The 100 Most Influential People by Time in 2014, one of the world’s 30 Most Influential People on the Internet by Time in 2015 and The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women by Forbes in 2014 and 2015. She also received the 2016 Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum, and she is the first Chinese female who receives this award.